Carbon Nanotube Transistors for VLSI Circuits

Saturday, January 29, 2011 - 14:52

January 29, 2011
School of Engineering, Amritapuri

“Over the years, there has been a relentless drive in the semiconductor industry to make the transistors, the building block of computer chips, as small as possible. This not only enables the chips to operate faster, but also drastically brings down the cost per chip.”

“But, as is the case with many technologies, there is a fundamental limit to this scaling and we are pretty much approaching it.”

Shibesh Dutta, who recently graduated with a B.Tech. degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from the Amritapuri campus began explaining the rationale behind his research that will soon lead to a paper publication in a prestigious international journal.

Titled Nanotube Substituted Source/Drain Regions for Carbon Nanotube Transistors for VLSI Circuits, the paper was accepted for publication in the journal Nanoscience and Nanotechnology.

Shibesh is currently working as Junior Research Fellow at the Center of Excellence in Nanoelectronics at IIT Bombay.

He co-authored this paper with Dr. Balakrishnan Shankar, Associate Dean at the Amritapuri campus.

“Of course I took part in the creation of this paper,” shared Dr. Balakrishnan. “But the initiative was Shibesh’s and the idea for research was his. I just provided him the needed support.”

“I am so glad to note that the idea of a student metamorphosed into a full-fledged paper. May all faculty members provide support to students who want to take such initiatives.”

The paper co-authored by Shibesh and Dr. Balakrishnan highlighted the use of carbon nanotube transistors for VLSI circuits.

“In the paper, we proposed theoretical concepts of functional transistors made from carbon nanotubes. These devices hold the promise for smaller, faster and more power efficient electronics for the future.”

“We made an attempt to design a transistor using carbon nanotubes in two ways. First, we used semiconducting nanotubes for channel and metallic nanotubes for source and drain. Second, we used semiconducting nanotubes and then defined different regions using differential doping, thus making a single nanotube act as a transistor.”

“The paper also discusses the use of aerogels and xerogels as an option for the field oxide material.”

It is not every day that an undergraduate student, with the support of his professor, brings forth research work that a top journal considers worthy of publication. But at Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham it is not a rare occurrence either.

We congratulate both Shibesh and Dr. Balakrishnan and hope that their example inspires countless others.